Adam has been practising employment law for over 26 years. His legal career started by writing papers on subjects as diverse as the psychology behind football hooliganism and the operation of TUPE during university sector reform. His employment work over the years has over the years involved particular focus on sectors such as education, financial services, health, manufacturing, commodities trading, publishing, catering, real estate and technology. The nature of his advice has remained broad, with particular interests and experience in TUPE, international restructuring and redundancies, insolvency, whistleblowing and discrimination.

Adam is a great believer in the importance of psychology in all workplace situations and that it is particularly important in the management of both physical and mental health issues. With mental health issues, he fears that employers can sometimes be reluctant to engage in proactive management with employees who are struggling and instead they fall back on the procedure-based approach that is encouraged by both the case law in the UK and statutory guidance. This leads to a focus on diagnosis, the definition of a “disability” and delays due to reliance on occupational health reports. If not handled properly this can lead to defensive behaviour by employers, concentrating on constructing a defence to possible litigation rather than helping the employees to recover and thrive.

ADRIANA VERONICA GALIS

PERSONAL INFORMATION Location: Romania, Bucharest

Telephone 0040724386483 E-mail address: orosan.adriana@gmail.com

WORK EXPERIENCE

October 2016 – Present Judge at Court of Appeal Bucharest in Labour Law and Social Litigation

October 2014 – Present Trainer at National Institute of Magistracy in EU LAW

July 2012 – October 2016 Judge at Tribunal of Bucharest in Labour Law and Social Litigation

January 2009 – July 2012 Judge in First Instance in Civil Matter

October 2006 – December 2008 Trainee at National Institute of Magistracy

February 2004 – October 2006 Attorney in Bucharest Bar Association

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

2004 – 2005 Postgraduate Studies in Private Law at Law University in Bucharest, License in Commercial Law

1999 – 2004 Babes-Bolyai Law University, Cluj-Napoca

Babes-Bolyai Journalism University, Cluj-Napoca

LANGUAGES Understanding Speaking Writing

English C1 B2 B2

French B2 B1 B1

ADITIONAL INFORMATION

Publications Author of Case Law Collection in Payment Procedures, 2012

Co-author of Case Law Collection in Fulfilling the terms of an individual employment contract, EU Law perspectives, 2022

Conferences Different national and international conferences related to EU Law and Competition Law, 2012 – present

Competence EU Law – Judicial Cooperation in civil matters, Preliminary Ruling, Social and Labour Law

Digital Competence Basic User

Aida Ponce Del Castillo is a senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels, with a background in law and expertise in emerging technologies. Her work focuses on the ethical, legal, regulatory, and social implications of emerging technologies, including human genetics, nanotechnology, neurotechnology, and artificial intelligence. She has conducted research on data protection in the employment context.

As a foresight practitioner, Aida Ponce Del Castillo has led foresight projects such as the internal ‘Strategic Foresight for ETUI and ‘Scenarios on Occupational Safety and Health in 2040’. She is also involved in organising foresight training courses for trade unions. Currently, Dr. Ponce Del Castillo is a member of the OECD Working Party on AI Governance. She is also a member of the OECD Working Party on Bio, Nano and Convergent Technologies.

Prior to this, Dr. Ponce Del Castillo held the position of Head of the ETUI Health and Safety Unit, where she worked on occupational health and safety policies. She also served as Coordinator of the Workers’ Interest Group at the Advisory Committee of Safety and Health to the European Commission. Dr. Ponce Del Castillo received her Ph.D. in Law from the University of Valencia and has previously worked as a lawyer in civil litigation and corporate law.

Anna is a partner in the GowlingWLG Employment, Labour and Equalities team. Pragmatic and solutions focused she has over 25 years’ experience of handling a wide range of contentious employment issues from complex tribunal litigation to advisory work across sectors including manufacturing, construction, and retail.

Anna helps clients to solve a wide range of employment issues, from workforce planning to dispute resolution.  Her areas of specialism include advising on workplace disputes and, more particularly, the management of complex and publicly-sensitive disciplinary, grievance and performance management issues, and the handling of employment tribunal claims arising in those areas. She is regularly involved in advising on business re-organisations which often include an international element.

She also advises on a wide range of discrimination issues including advising on gender pay reporting and family leave matters including flexible working, maternity redundancy situations and shared parental leave where she led on a BEIS project aimed at simplifying the complexities of shared parental leave.

Over the years she has developed significant expertise advising on intricacies of the Working Time Regulations 1998, the application of the Agency Worker Regulations 2010 and national minimum wage compliance.

Anna is an experienced trainer, D&I advocate and has been a trustee of the UK national charity the Macular Society since 2017.

Anne focuses on providing strategic and practical solutions to any employment law issues that arise in the workplace.  Anne advises on a broad range of issues and has an interest and expertise in engaging with various stakeholders on crisis management issues with an employment relationship dimension. She works across many sectors including retail, tech, public sector and education.  She has advised on mental health issues from many different perspectives, including employer, employee, office holders and insurance companies. She also acts for one of Ireland’s largest trade unions.

In the context of her work, she has worked collaboratively with HR in navigating a way through issues where mental health is a feature, developing toolkits to help progress matters. As an employment lawyer when acting for a risk averse / compliant organisation, when mental health becomes a contentious issue, it can be difficult where an employer must in the main, be guided by the medical advice, which is outside their control. There can be different considerations and issues that arise depending on the diagnosis and nature of the illness. Balancing procedure/legal considerations with assessing risk is a key component to achieving successful outcomes.

For employees with mental health issues, they often feel stigmatised, bullied and often have real concerns around disclosing an illness in the first place. Identifying what a successful outcome looks like for the employee is key in determining the approach adopted.

Anne is a former chair of the Employment Law Association of Ireland and a former committee member of the Irish Health & Safety Lawyers Association. She has lectured at the Irish Law Society and has published articles in both legal and commercial media outlets.

EXPERIENCE

• Licensed since 1999, joined ARNECKE SIBETH DABELSTEIN in 2010
• Labour law, specifically labour & employment law, mainly for international clients (industrial constitution law/handling and rights of the works council, restructuring, labour law support of corporate transformation, negotiation with labour unions, arbitration committees)
• Professional experience: Mayer Brown (1999–2009), Bouchon & Partner (2010)

EDUCATION

• Legal clerkship at Hanau District Court (1997–1999)
• Studied in Frankfurt, Paris
• MBA (2005), Specialist lawyer for labour law (2002), LL.M. (University Paris X – Nanterre)
• Languages: German, English, French

TRACK RECORD

• Ongoing extensive and exclusive labour law advice (FedEx),
  labour law advice (extensive negotiations of various
  reconciliations of interest and social plans) in the merger
  of both company groups/6,000 employees (Integration TNT/FedEx), extensive advice on restructuring measures/negotiations for reconciliation of interests and redundancy plan (Eckerle Group), extensive advice on restructuring measures/negotiations for reconciliation of interests and redundancy plan (Lemoine Germany)

Åsa is a partner at Setterwalls Lawfirm, heading its employment team. She is renowned for her client-focus and for her practical, hands on experience in advising many of the country’s leading companies and international groups on contentious and non-contentious instructions.
In addition to her broad practice, Åsa takes an active part of Stockholm’s business life (e.g., by having been a member of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce’s general assembly for many years and by being a member of the board of the Swedish Bar Association) and is a frequent lecturer and speaker on employment law related topics at educations and similar events.

Judge Branko Lubarda studied at the Law School of the University of Belgrade, taking his undergraduate, master’s and doctorate degree there. He then went on to take up a number of teaching positions at the same university, becoming Full Professor in 2005. From 2003 to 2005 he acted as Coordinator for the Council of Europe for the compatibility of Serbia and Montenegrin law with the Revised European Social Charter. He has been President of the Board of the Anticorruption Agency of Serbia and President of the Serbian Association for Labour Law and Social Security. 

Judge Lubarda was a member of the Serbian High Civil Service Council from 2005 to 2010, and then a Member of the Presidency of the Serbian Association of Jurists from 2011 until 2015. He has been a judge of the ECtHR since 2015 and Vice-president of Section III from February 2017 to May 2019.  

Burkard Göpfert (Dr. iur., LL.M.) is a partner at KLIEMT.HR Lawyers based in Munich, Germany. Burkard represents employers in Union and works council negotiations and acts as the Practice Head of IUS LABORIS Restructuring group. Burkard has recently been active with an initiative on „HR meets Human Rights“ engaging with ILO, OECD and related groups. 

Cara is a Partner and Employment and Labour lawyer with Van Doorne, a full-service independent law firm based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Cara advises and litigates on the full spectrum of employment and labour issues. She works with multinational companies on complex (cross border) HR and employment matters. She regularly lectures on flexible working arrangements, cross-border employment relations and platform work. Cara has in-depth experience in M&A transactions and post-merger restructuring, both from the (central) works council- and company perspective. She has broad experience in the field of workplace investigations and cases that revolve around (whistle-blower) complaints and forms of misconduct, including (sexual) harassment and integrity matters.

Catherine De Caluwe – SThree Director (Belux region) 

Catherine is responsible for the strategy, performance, and operations of SThree and its brands (Computer Futures, Progressive Recruitment, Real Staffing and Huxley) across Belgium and Luxembourg.   

SThree is a global STEM-specialist recruitment & staffing partner connecting dynamic organisations with communities of sought-after specialists in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Founded in London in 1986 as a small business, over the past 36 years the company has expanded into a multi-brand organisation active in 44 offices through 12 countries. 

Since joining SThree in 2000, Catherine had the opportunity to work on different projects and to go through many different positions: from Recruitment Consultant to Business Development Manager, then through the role of Director of Operations & Sales Operations to Country Director. She is working together with all the persons part of SThree towards the same purpose: “Bringing skilled people together to build the future”. She is passionate about various trendy topics:  

• The “Future of work” as companies are going towards a more hybrid type of work (with internal and external talents), where technology and innovations will play an important role and where diversity, equality, inclusion are crucial.
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria are also very close to her hearth and important for SThree. Today all organisations must strive to do more volunteering and sustainable initiatives and involve clients, partners but also employees in these actions. 
• Authenticity and “bring you whole self-notion” must be also embraced to have a world where skills take precedence over appearance, age or skin colour.

On a more personal level Catherine is living in Bornem, a small town in Belgium, and she has 5 kids. She studied at the University of Ghent, and she is the Co-Founder of a secondary school “LAB”. 

David O’Neill is a recovering IP lawyer who has spent the last 30 years in sales.

He began his career with Rupert Murdoch in London, became a director with The Economist in New York and with Informa Plc in the UK. Recently he was Vice President of a scale up SAAS Artificial Intelligence business where everyone was half his age and twice as smart as him. Today his is a Consulting Partner at RAIN Group.

David is committed to professionalising how we approach the selling element of our work, that it isn’t a neglected afterthought and instead becomes the foundation stone for a new level of client relationship. You no longer sell legal services; you are a key partner in achieving the client’s personal and business goals.

Over the past two years he has worked with senior partners and newly appointed partners at one of the world’s leading law firms, applying RAIN research and methodology specifically to the legal world.

Let’s make your business development work a pleasure for you and your clients.

And let’s make it pay.

Dragoș Iliescu is a Professor of Psychology with the University of Bucharest and an Extraordinary Professor with the Stellenbosch University. He has been active as a consultant for the past more than 20 years, being involved in and having led important projects related to tests, testing and assessment (among them more than 100 test adaptation projects), mainly in South-Eastern Europe, but also in South-East Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Dragoș Iliescu has served in various capacities for a number of national and international professional associations; among others, he is a Past-President (2016-2018) of the International Test Commission (ITC), an Executive Committee member and Treasurer of the European Association for Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP), and the President of the Division 2 (Psychological Assessment and Evaluation) of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). He is the Editor-in-Chief for the European Journal of Psychological Assessment, and the author of over 100 scientific papers, book chapters and books, among them (as co-Editor) the acclaimed ITC International Handbook of Testing and Assessment, published in 2016 by Oxford University Press, and an important monography on the cultural adaptation of tests (Adapting tests in linguistic and cultural situations) published by Cambridge University Press. His research interests group around two domains: (1) psychometrics: psychological and educational assessment, tests and testing (with an important cross-cultural component), and (2) work, industrial and organizational psychology (with an important focus on measurement in selection and occupational health).

Gautier Busschaert is attorney at Van Olmen & Wynant, specialised in employment law.

Before joining Van Olmen & Wynant in 2013, Gautier was a teaching assistant at his Alma Mater in the Department for European and international law from 2011 to 2013.

Gautier was admitted to the Brussels Bar in 2013.

Gautier graduated from the University of Louvain (UCL, 2005) and obtained a Masters in European Law from the University of Brussels (ULB, 2006). He holds a PhD in law from the University of Leicester which he obtained in 2014.

Gautier is a member of the European Employment Lawyers Association, regularly publishes in both national and international law reviews and is a national contributor to the “European Employment Law Cases” (EELC) review.

In 2022, Gautier received the Lexology Client Choice Award for Labour & Employment in Belgium. He is also currently a guest professor in European social law at the University of Brussels.

Ida Nowers – External Bio

Ida Nowers is Law and Policy Coordinator at the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN). WIN is global network of civil society experts focused on whistleblower protection.  

Ida is responsible facilitating expertise exchange across the WIN network, and supporting the development of WINs membership, which comprises civil society organisations and practitioners which support and defend whistleblowers worldwide.

Prior to joining WIN, Ida worked as a Senior Adviser at at Protect – a dedicated whistleblowing charity and legal advice centre – where she provided legal advice and practical support to hundreds of whistleblowers.

Ida’s extensive experience supporting individuals navigating complicated legal and personal whistleblowing dilemmas and deep understanding of the UK’s Public Interest Disclosure Act (1998) – the first comprehensive dedicated legislation in Europe – have made her a respected expert on the effective implementation of whistleblower protection laws and policies.

Ida also has a wealth of experience working with public institutions and private sector organisations, providing consultancy, guidance, and training to better design, strengthen and benchmark effective institutional whistleblowing arrangements.  Her extensive experience working with employers and whistleblowers has led to her contributing to the development of several whistleblowing standards, including the ISO 37002 Guidelines on Whistleblowing Management Systems.   

Ida leads the EU Whistleblowing Monitor which tracks developments in the transposition of the EU Directive on Whistleblowing 2019/1937 across the 27 Member States.  Ida supports advocacy of the national partners to urge EU governments to ensure implementation of the Directive is in line with international best practice principles.

Ida graduated in Law at the University of London, studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Kings College London, and specialising in Public International Law, Legal Systems of Africa and Asia, and EU Law and Human Rights.